Přesunutí blogu

Tento blog jsem přesunula pod nové jméno na novou adresu - wellbekind.blogspot.com. Dále budu publikovat již jen tam. Pokud jste tento blog sledovali či na něj odkazovali, prosím, přesuňte svou pozornost i odkazy na novou adresu, díky :)

K změně názvu, přesto, že už byl celkem zavedený, jsem se rozhodla proto, že nevyjadřoval přesně to, o co usiluji. Veganství není to jediné, co mám na zřeteli, respektive, je to součást něčeho širšího. Navíc píšu i o jiných věcech než jen o zvířatech a veganství. Slovo etika ve spojení s veganstvím se mi pak zdálo příliš mravokárné. Název We'll be kind - Budeme laskaví je mi bližší a odkazuji na něj radši. Cítím, že lépe vyjadřuje to, o co se svým psaním i působením snažím.
Přemistěme se tedy na novou adresu a pokud vás moje psaní zaujímá, přihlašte se se svým účtem k odběru či zasílání nových příspěvků emailem :)
B.


This blog has been moved to a new address under a new name: wellbekind.blogspot.com. From now on I will only post there. If you had followed this blog or linked to it, please move your attention and links to the new address, thank you :)
I decided to change the name because the previous one - Vegan Ethics didn't fully reflect what I am trying to achieve with this. Veganism is not the only thing I live, or to say, it is a compound of a whole. And I write about other things than animals and veganism, too. Apart from this, the term Ethics in a combination with veganism felt a bit moralizing (more like that in Czech than English). We'll be kind feels closer to what I want and is easier for me to share. It goes more to the point of what I am trying to create with my writing and actions.
So let's move on to the new address and if you want to, follow me with your Google / Blogspot account or submit an email address to receive updates by email!
B. :)

Slepý pes našel vodící husu

Boxer Baks oslepl při loňské nešťastné události. Pod svá ochranná křídla si ho však vzala domáci husa jménem Buttons.

Čtyřletá Buttons vodí svého přítele buď pomocí dlouhého krku, nebo kejhání.

Jejich lidská opatrovnice, Renata Kursa z polského Lublinu, říká: "Buttons ho postupně zvedala na nohy a začla ho vodit. Jsou teď nerozluční - dokonce spolu honí pošťáka."

Přeloženo z http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/861546-cute-alert-goose-looks-after-blind-dog

Komentář: Nezávidím tomu či té, kdo do téhle domácnosti doručují poštu... Aby se na mě řítil boxer a čtyřletá husa...  :)

English: 
Goose looks after blind dog

Blind boxer dog Baks has got a new lease of life - after being taken under the wing of a pet goose called Buttons.

Buttons the four-year-old goose leads her pal around everywhere either by hanging onto him with her neck, or by honking to tell him which way to go.

Owner Renata Kursa, 47, of Lublin, Poland, was heartbroken when Baks was left blind after an accident last year.

'But gradually Buttons got him up on his feet and starting walking him around. They're inseparable now - they even chase the postman together,' she said.

Source: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/861546-cute-alert-goose-looks-after-blind-dog

Commentary: Wouldn't like to deliver post to this family... Being chasen by a boxer and a four-year-old goose... :)

Solidarity with Egypt, Syria & others

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Syrian_uprising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring


From the news: Egypt's latest uprising has a more violent feel



I just wish peace...

Triggering compassion

Krásný názor, souhlasím...

Triggering Compassion

 “I think the most important piece of advice I can give is to ‘remember your story.’ It’s only when we forget that we, too, were once unaware or …’trapped in speciesist thinking’ that we become arrogant and judgmental. If we stay humble and remember that we had our own journey, I think it is key to having open and effective dialogues with people. I genuinely believe that people are good and want to do the right thing, and it’s that perception I approach every person I meet with. I don’t believe people wake up each morning trying to figure out how they can be as cruel as possible. But I do believe people wake up every morning FORGETTING to focus on how they can be as compassionate as possible. If that’s what we speak to – their compassion – then I believe that’s what will be triggered: compassion.” - Colleen Patrick-Goudreau


Colleen Patrick-Goudreau je skvělá americká autorka a lektorka. Začínala s kurzy veganského vaření, napsala několik úspěšných veganských kuchařek, přednáší a podcastuje na svém webu www.compassionatecooks.com

Přepis rozhovoru pro ARZone, z něhož je i tento úryvek: http://arzone.ning.com/profiles/blogs/transcript-of-colleen

Přejala jsem z http://www.nonhumanslavery.com/triggering-compassion

Kenji - internace japonských Američanů

Song o japonských Američanech, internovaných během 2. světové války z obavy o domácí bezpečnost Spojených států.
A song about Japanese Americans internated in the States during World War II due to fears of homeland attack.


Kenji (artist: Fort Minor)



odkazy:
Americké internační tábory pro Japonce (wiki)
Japanese American internment (wiki)
Fotografie rodiny Mochida před evakuací / Mochida family awaiting evacuation photo
Fotografie k tématu / Related photos (wiki)
Většina fotografií byla pochopitelně pořízena k propagačním účelům. / Note that most of the photos are of official origin.

Coexist

J. Dunayer - Speciesism: komentář

"Until we reduce society's speciesism, we'll keep treating the symptoms rather than curing the illness. In the end, only a substantial decrease in speciesism can emancipate nonhumans.
Why emancipate nonhumans? Enslavement is wrong, murder is wrong, and causing innocent beings to suffer is wrong. Fully as much as humans, all nonhumans are entitled to life, freedom, and other basic rights. Humans deny this for only one reason: speciesism."

"Dokud nezmenšíme druhovou nadřazenost ve společnosti, budeme jen ošetřovat jednotlivé projevy, namísto abychom odstranili sám problém. Pouze výrazné umenšení speciesismu v myslích lidí může mimolidi osvobodit.
Proč osvobodit mimolidi? Zotročování je špatné. Vraždění je špatné. Způsobovat utrpení nevinných bytostem je špatné. V celém rozsahu jako lidé mají i mimolidé právo na život, svobodu a ostatní základní potřeby. Lidé jim toto odpírají z jediného důvodu: druhové nadřazenosti."

- Joan Dunayer, Speciesism (2004)

Nad základními texty, jako je tento, se dá dál dobře diskutovat. Celá kniha J. Dunayer se nabízí k polemice (mám ji všude podtrhanou a popsanou :). Autorka sama přitom nedává téměř žádný prostor k diskuzi, vším si je, zdá se, jistá, a pouze oznamuje. Všechno je pro ni jasně špatné nebo dobré, existuje (zjednodušeně) pouze mravně nepřijatelné a jako opak mravně přijatelné čili nutné. Toto není snaha o recenzi, pouze komentář, přemýšlení nahlas. Ať už je pro tebe/vás/nás (nevím ke komu se obracet?) její způsob komunikace myšlenek skousnutelný nebo ne, je to jednoznačně přínosná kniha. Definuje speciesismus a nonspeciesismus tak, že analyzuje myšlenkový systém, právní podobu a aktivismus obojího (speciesismus ve skutečnosti rozděluje na nový speciesismus a starý speciesismus). Zároveň je, tipuju, snadnějším uvedením do speciesismu a zvířecího abolicionismu, předtím než se člověk pustí do Francioneho (viz níže).
Určitě doporučuju k přečtení aktivistům a teoretikům* (pokud už nemáte přelouskaného Francioneho :), myšlenkově provokuje od začátku do konce.

Jak jsem si všimla, v prostředí animal studies bylo věnováno něco prostoru konfrontaci Dunayer s Francionem, z něhož do velké míry vychází. Narazila jsem zatím na spíše kritické komentáře, ale moc jsem to nestudovala, pro zájemce např. Jeff Perz, 2006 (zkrácená verze).

* Doufám, že několik teoretiků animal rights / (non)speciesismu / veganství se u nás brzy objeví :) Moc ráda bych, abychom systémové zneužívání zvířat představili a ukázali jako zcela legitimní a vážný problém, který je třeba v současné době řešit, a tím dodali legitimitu a uznání i animal studies na jedné straně a hnutí za práva zvířat na druhé.

Je myslím namístě začít diskutovat o terminologii, pokud chceme problém zneužívání zvířat přinést do české společnosti a řešit. V češtině máme spoustu termínů nerozhodnutých anebo krkolomných. Z hlavy, co mě napadá, a co by bylo dobré ujasnit:

• speciesismus (speciesmus?) / druhová nadřazenost / druhismus (?)

• animal advocates / animal activists / animalistas / animal defenders - ???

• práva zvířat? osvobození zvířat? ochrana / obrana zvířat?

• mimolidská zvířata / mimo/lidská zvířata / mimolidé (?) / ne/lidská zvířata... ???

• sentience - napadá někoho něco?

• atd., víc mě teď nenapadá.

Tento příspěvek je mimojiné snahou o diskuzi, co si o tom myslíte? Jaký termín preferujete? Budu ráda za reakce a podněty, okomentujte.

Odkazy:
* Joan Dunayer (wiki), autorka knih Animal Equality: Language and Liberation (2001) a Speciesism (2004)
* Gary L. Francione, profesor práv (zařadil na své domovské univerzitě do výuky animal rights law), autor několika knih, rozvíjí abolicionismus a kriticky se staví k welfarismu. abolitionistapproach.com
* lanternbooks.com - nakladatelství, vydává hodně zajímavé tituly (práva zvířat, social justice, environmentalismus, zdravý život)
* humanimal.cz - Human-Animal Studies v ČR


Jako obvykle se omlouvám, pokud je moje psaní těžko srozumitelné... Snažím se o kompromis mezi srozumitelností a obsažností či přesností :)

Videa otevřených záchran, investigací aj.

Videokanály
organizací Igualdad Animal/Animal Equality a Equanimal. Otevřené záchrany, investigace, reportáže, dokumentární filmy.

http://www.animalequality.net/videos
http://vimeo.com/channels/animalequality
http://vimeo.com/channels/igualdadanimal
http://vimeo.com/channels/equanimal

Webové stránky investigací
Investigaciones Animales.org

Mataderos.info Investigace na španělských jatkách

Piel es Asesinato.com Investigace na farmách s norky, 2009

Granjas de Cerdos.org Investigace na farmách s prasaty, 2010

Granjas de Visones.es Investigace na farmách s norky, 2010


Webové stránky otevřených záchran
Rescate Abierto.org
Open Rescue.net

Fotoalba
flickr.com/photos/igualdadanimal
flickr.com/photos/equanimal


Další webové stránky
Granjas de Esclavos.com Farmy s otroky

Sentir bajo el Agua.com Ryby ("Cítit pod vodou")

Ve jménu vědy

"Přijde den, kdy se svět bude dívat na moderní vivisekci ve jménu vědy tak, jako se my díváme dnes na upalování na hranici ve jménu víry."
Henry J. Bigelow, M.D.

(“There will come a time when the world will look back to modern vivisection in the name of Science, as they do now to burning at the stake in the name of religion.”)

Sdílím ze stránky On Nonhuman Slavery - www.nonhumanslavery.com - doporučuju, lze se přihlásit k odběru příspěvků, publikují zajímavé myšlenky.

http://www.nonhumanslavery.com/there-will-come-a-time

There's nothing wrong with it.

Filozofická povídka, v které jsem se snažila zveličit výrok, že pokud by jatka měla skleněné zdi, všichni lidé by byli vegetariány. Pokud autoři mnohokrát opakovaného výroku chtěli ve skutečnosti říci vegany, tj. těmi, kdo nejí ani mléčné výrobky, pak fajn a používejte napříště správná pojmenování. Musíme už se naučit nebát slova veganství a neříkat vegetariánství všude tam, kde ve skutečnosti myslíme veganství. I to se snažím říct touto povídkou a dotahuju tvrzení o skleněných zdech do extrému - kdyby jatka měla skleněné zdi a všichni lidé by byli vegetariány (tj. ne vegany), nešťastné krávy by probíhaly sklem. Zatím jen v angličtině.

A philosophical fiction in which I tried to exaggerate the quote saying that if slaughterhouses had glass wals, we'd be all vegetarians. If the authors of this frequent statement wanted to actually say vegans, then well done and say what you really mean next time. We truly need to learn not to be afraid of the word vegan and not to say vegetarian when we really mean vegan. This is one of the things I wanted to point out in my story and so I hyperbolised - if slaughterhouses had glass walls, so-called dairy cows would run through them.

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH DRINKING MILK.
For some particular reason, I was deeply interested in not having my limbs cut off in the name of this frantic belief. There is everything to be "wrong" with what assigned me to milking machines, to wade in my siblings' blood here.

COW RUNS THROUGH A GLASS WALL IN ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE SLAUGHTER
That's right. They said, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd be all vegetarians. Clearly, let me explain. Now when slaughterhouses have glass walls, so-called dairy cows run through them. Surely, it did turn you vegetarians...
I know about humans tokenizing my mothers' photographs while praying for the world to go vegetarian. I wonder if this is what they wanted, here... I'm not a cow anymore, but I see.
When the time came that you stopped eating our flesh, unspeakable numbers of fourleggeds went on to end up being burnt into the piles of tr/ash. 'We wouldn't eat their muscles, right?' So ended up my nine little children in their fortnight. The tenth and eleventh ones I bore dead.
Meanwhile cows, such as I used to be, rotted in rusty stalls nourishing humans with flowery milk... and blood as they were dying. I will not any longer be part of it anymore.

But there are few more things that I will have to say. Something to leave behind as a memoriam, for something to be left of me as my children were all butchered. An insight. I was born in a stall, I spent all my life inside the stall and before I was trucked to slaughter, I had never stepped out of the stall. Still, I will never cease to wonder the miracle of holocaust we were all left to linger within, lower creatures. Children being born on concrete, their lame mothers beaten to get up on their feet and watch and listen to their children's screams as they were castrated alive, horns thrown away, testicles cut and numbers burnt. Iron deprived and wood kept, filthy, always-thirsty though swilled and hungry though fed. Mad. Motherless, bloodless, chronically anemic muscles called white meat. What is a meat?
Shot. Tied. Dragged. Hung. Awoken. Stabbed. Cut. Throats cut. Ears cut. Limbs cut. Roar.
Head cut. Veal.

Or, as others said, ... If slaughterhouses had glass walls, you still wouldn't be able to see much, because the glass would be smeared with blood.

Z diskuzí / From discussions

Z mých příspěvků v diskuzi určené studentům v rámci projektu o znalostní eurospolečnosti (jakýsi koncept, který jsem dosud nepochopila). Na diskuzním fóru měla být probírána témata týkající se vědy ve všech možných podobách. Zatím jen v angličtině.

From what I had to say in a student discussion about a "knowledge based society" (an idea I haven't understood). We, the students, were supposed to discuss issues concerning science of any type.

I don't believe the state of our world & society is sustainable. We're just coming to see it now, we have a vague awareness that "something somewhere is not right", we know that people in Africa & South America are starving, that America is fighting Middle East for oil, that there are few rain forest left and so on, but then we drive home every night into a warm home, switch on a light, cook a steak in a microvawe, drink a coffee & forget about it.
However there are tons of facts that are hard to ignore. We are consuming three times more oil than we discover every year. How sustainable is this? How many more fights will there be if there's NO oil left? How quickly will every single industry in this world fall if there's no oil left?
This indeed seems as a catastrophical vision (it is a bit far-fetched for me either), but we really have to think about it.
The lifestyle of the world's one quarter (the developed North) directly affects lives of the remaining three quarters of people in the South who have no chance of competing against our will of consuming. None of us in Europe / America is solely consuming their own resources; we are consuming resources of our contemporaries in South plus those of the generations far to come. This is not sustainable.
Thus I believe the only (realistic) way to minimise the chimeric vision is for us as individuals to live as sensibly & choicely as we can.
___

It is not just an idea of one Indian scientist. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations), even the World Bank, express equal concerns that the livestock "production" poses major threat to environment.
Anyway, at any given moment there are 33 billions (meaning "miliarda" in Czech) so called farm animals on this planet (5x the human population). They must be eating something (and a single cow eats a lot). More than half of the grain fed to animals in Europe & USA is grown in Africa & South America. People are starving there; 850 millions of them each year. The question & the answer is quite simple: Why do Africans & South Americans starve and die of hunger when they have absolutely enough to feed themselves? Because we take the grain from them so we can feed it to the cattle here. (And the animals only transform one tenth of the energy received.)
So even if you don't care about what the so called livestock production does to the environment & that it takes lives from the animals who didn't want to die, you could at least care about the people who’re dying of hunger so you could have the huge hamburger for tonight dinner.
And as another of you was afraid - rainforest are also being felled primarily for the livestock production. They are being felled to create space for growing soy and corn, which is then fed to the millions head cattle stock in Argentina, Brazil and USA. (The former are number one exporters of cow's meat).
And with greenhouse emisions, the largest contributor to global warming is methan dioxide ('bout 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide), which sources from nothing else than manure production by the 33 billions cattle in the world. (Just try to imagine how much excrements this number of cows and pigs produces in the world).
___

The increasing life span has never been proven to be related to meat consumption, has it? The major contribution to life span increase was rapid hygiene standard development (reconstruction of canalisation etc.) On the contrary, increasing meat consumption has been linked to most of the civilisation diseases by world health organisations.
___

There is something we completely missed out to mention, and yet it's fundamental when discussing Ethics of science. I am most concerned by the practice of vivisection - animal experimentation. Comparing to this, and to the immense numbers of animals "used" each day, discussing stem cells really is a minor problem.
I expect my opinion to be considered extreme, but I really am convinced that animal experimentation, in all its abhorrous forms, is unacceptable. The inflicted suffering itself should be far enough reason; we condemn human experimentation for stricly the same reasons - its absolute moral unacceptability. Even if it brought wonderful results, most of us would consider vivisection on humans unacceptable - simply because it's something we CANNOT dare. And for sentient beings tortured in the labs, the pain and the blood is absolutely the same.
But then people come up with the argument "it saves lives" and it's game over for them. But does it? I say, vivisection does not save human lives, it cannot from its fundamental base, it's a wrong practice and wrong hope. Artificially created disease in one species has nothing in common with naturally occuring disease in a different species; we react differently to almost everything & it has many times proved dangerous. What is this all for if we KNOW animals will react differently & we just want to try it? Learning about the human body on molecular basis by cutting up mouse will not tell us nothing in a real science.
___

I'm afraid that there's no choice between a rat versus a child at all. Indeed most people deem such statement as nonsense, because we've been brought up for so long to believe that vivisection "saves lives", it's a "necessary evil", it's "fundamental for our surviving", it must continue in order to cure cancer etc. It's everywhere.
But I dare to say it's not true. Of course you don't usually hear about it because nobody wants (you) to know. But if you wish to look up, you find.
Every species reacts differently; lemon juice is toxic for cats and rabbits yet it's perfect for humans and mice. Penicilin helps people but kills guinea pigs, aspirin kills cats. Arsenic is non-toxic for rabbits. No other species suffers from human type AIDS & cancer, yet thousands animals are slayed weekly for its testing - though the human type works on completely different basis. Parkinson's and Alzheimer's are tested on monkeys, cats and mice routinely though none of the species has even the same part of the brain that is responsible for it. Cancer is tested on mice; they are not even able to form natural carcinomas. Schizophrenia and depression are tested routinely on cats and monkeys the way they cut parts of their brain, sew their eyes and observe how the animals behave.
How can you test a disease on a species that never suffers from it? (Only about 1,16% of human illnesses are said to occur in other species).
Vivisectors often talk about creating a "similar" disease - the animals "look" like they have the disease; but in the world of true science, on the molecular basis, the word "similar" is meaningless.Most of the tested substances (95% appr.) passed through the animal tests are discarded immediately as useless or dangerous to humans. Animal tests and human results agree 5% to 15% of the time. Flipping a coin would be ten times more accurate. Every new substance, however intensive animal tests it went onto, must be tried out again on men - often proving fatal.
I could go on. Vivisection is a perfect business, w/t $400 billions annual turnover in the pharmaceutics, $600 billions in the chemistry industry. Of course, for the people concerned, no one wants people to think about it - it's so much easier to pretend everything's OK. But for such an abhorrous stake.
___

Everyone who studies medicine or natural science has to pass an academe where they are taught from the day one to vivisect animals. My friend studies medicine and what he told me about the experiments they do - cannot even imagine it really happens. Every doctor / scientist of nature is forced to encompass vivisection as somethng "normal" in order to graduate.
Then they start working in the field and from the day one, again, they are in the academic environment where using animals in any way is routine. And they stop thinking about it.
For the people concerned, it's a huge business. Vivisection is a huge business, as I wrote there are $hundreds of billions in the drugs & chemical industry. They get grants for their research directly from pharmaceutical companies or from state institutions (eg. National Institute of Health), which mostly comprises of vivisectors too. So of course there is no clash of interest.
And for the people, it's their fame, their money, their career. They've founded their career on something and of course very few people would give up to this, don't you think so? Stand up and admit they've been doing wrong for half of their life.
I really am convinced most of the people involved in this KNOW what they are doing is not really bringing success neither progress. But publically they would never say it. I think providing you with the data is much more useful though.

www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html
www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/medical/drug1a.html
www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/drug2a.html
http://aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.de/i.php4?Lang=de
www.vivisectionfraud.com/books.html
www.vivisectionfraud.com/1000docs.html
www.curedisease.net

A ram

This is not a report on direct action, although a little theft is concerned, nor is it a report on one or two animals' liberation, although I wished nothing else. Instead, it is a heartfelt story of one or two animal individuals that I want to share.

On 6th of September 2007 I and my friend visited an animal agribusiness exhibition Náš chov (Our stock) in Lysá nad Labem, Czech Republic.
Curious, we first toured amongst the many stalls where different animal breeders and abusers displayed their equipments, tools, crates, feed and other subjects of domination, some displayed their stock catalogues and some offered beef tasting. We gathered armful of materials and publications "straight from the source", many of which I still haven't ceased to wonder at.

Then, armed with cameras, we moved to the animal exhibition hall. There we found tens of animals, sheep, calves, mother cows, bulls, rams, rabbits, goats, mother sows and piglets, and some stalls with sheep skins and meat, of course. This was actually my first direct contact with the very animals we fight for, as I usually just sit behind computer writing and communicating, and occasionally get off to screen movies for people or on the streets.

Here I was, for the first time, confronted with the actual beings, lives, faces, souls, or numbers for some. One beside another, cows and sheep were lying or standing in the enclosures, not too small for them to move, but just enough small for them to be considered goods. Just next to the entrance, three spotted young cows were gazing around, occasionally munching on trampled hay and one of them, lying, was chewing on the steel fencing. I squeezed past to the narrow corridor and kneeled down to her. A young, beautiful cow with a number stamp in her ears slowly comforted to my hand and let me pat and stroke her face and neck. She was so gentle, despite of her size, and so unloved. She kept on chewing the fence and few times reached to try to chew my knee. She had obviously been weaned prematurely and missed her mother so much, in spite of herself already looking mature.

I tried to nurse her little ailments the minutes I spent with her, drying her watery eyes and nose and wiping some pus from her ears, probably springing an infection from inserted plastic stamp. Then I patted my little friend goodbye and moved along to photograph the other animals. We took photos of sheep having numbers sprayed on their backs, of so called Belgian blue cattle with huge muscle tissue, of bleating goats and their babies, of mother sows and their piglets sleeping peacefully next to one another, not knowing that their families will be torn apart soon, and not seeing the numbers tattooed on their backs that we saw.

We filmed farmers dragging and pushing rams, goats and sheep along the corridors, them slipping on a slippery floor and screaming, and them then being pushed to the main exhibit. Many people sat there along the exhibit, often they were families with kids, and watched the animals being handled, exhibited, dominated and talked of as we used to talk of slaves.

We filmed demonstrative shearing of sheep, the process of which included dragging sheep along by their necks, heads or legs, kicking the frightened animals into the exhibit, strapping them motionless to a huge tall machine and then shearing the wool off them violently. A commentator's shouts and a lamb's cries were echoing in the hall. We then filmed them being dragged back to their enclosures and we filmed their naked shivering sheared bodies slowly developing deep bloody cuts.

This is what we saw, and I really felt like we were the only ones there who did. If the others saw the same abuse and heard the same cries, how could they not act? How could they keep delighted smiles on their faces, how could they go on eating the lambs' fried bodies?

I had been afraid of going inside with a camera and simply filming there, however I realized soon that no one cared. I followed the farmers pulling goats by their horns and kicking them, I filmed their faces, too – the farmers, however, did not give a damn. I felt disempowered.

With enough of evidence, we went back again to comfort our little calf friend. It was hard to say goodbye to someone you know will be shackled and butchered and murdered and eaten just months or days after. My heart bled. We left her quickly after consensus that it would be easier for us like that. I said goodbye to our little sad spotted friend, touched her for the last time (and this time I knew it really was the last time, ever) and walked away.

We were moving once again past the many animals exhibited, with our camera memory nearly full, and thinking of leaving the place. And there he was. Standing in his small fence, almost pressing his chest to it, his thin feet carrying heap of wool. With closed eyes and a peaceful, resigned face, the ram was stretching his head, resting it on the fence, to the corridor. People were walking past him and he was still there like that – motionless, just behind the fence, with his head reaching out, eyes closed, and waiting. He looked like a sleeping puppet, a hopeful angel in a war field. I put off my camera and kneeled down to him. I stretched my arms to him and he, still not moving, eyes shut, laid his head into my arms. And that was it.

I don't know how long we rested there like this. I did not move a finger, neither did he, though the weight of his head was crushing my arm. I only knew, I heard, that the people walking by stopped and gazed. There was a statue of us, I kneeling and hugging the ram, resting my head in his coat, and he standing there pressed to me laying his head in my arms. I was speechless, my friend was and so were the people around. My friend took some last photos of him and then sat next and comforted the ram on his face. He was blinking his eyes and rubbing his face against my friend's hand. We sat there for how long just scratching his head and neck. We knew he'd been waiting for us.

When I was leaving, I took a heavy leather collar off his neck and put it into my bag – thus the theft – and I still have it on my drawer case. When I was leaving, he was still there like that – resigned, trustful, blameless. Only with the difference that then, I hope, he felt... (Here I come to be short of words.) ... loved. Assured. Admired. Kissed. Like when you kiss a girl or a boy for the first time.

My friend had felt uncomfortable for paying money to the butchers to get inside the exhibition (i.e. entrance fee). I told her we would take photographs and get publications directly from the source of abuse. But what I am the most grateful for, knowing to have paid money to the abusers, is, except for being able to caress two wonderful, lonely, forgotten souls, that I have hopefully shone a little shred of apprehension to the people around. As I was hugging the ram, behind me I heard many people stop and stare at us. I even heard parents showing the ram to their kids and saying nice things to them. I do not live in a belief any of them turned vegetarian or vegan that night, nor do I believe any of the people even got the idea of not eating the animals. But I know, somewhere inside I know, that the few people around stopped to think when they saw me and him like that, and saw tears in my eyes.

I don't know how to stop the suffering. I don't know how to help them from the misery they languish in. But I know, I know that what we have to do is going on. I strive to live every second true to my heart, and when I think back of the beautiful ram, although I grieve, I know that there, at that very time, my heart was right.

Photos from the exhibition at realita.tv